Pope visits Fatima shrine in Portugal; skips key address

Pope Francis greets a child as he meets with people at the Chapel of Apparitions of the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, during his apostolic journey to Portugal on the occasion of the XXXVII World Youth Day, in Fatima, Portugal, August 5, 2023. Vatican Media/Handout via REUTERS

FATIMA, Portugal (Reuters) -Pope Francis visited the revered Catholic Shrine of Fatima in Portugal on Saturday, praying the rosary for world peace with about 200,000 people at the site where the Church says the Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children in 1917.

The 86-year-old pope skipped reading a speech that was on the programme of his two-hour visit to the world-famous shrine north of Lisbon, and which was expected to have been the centrepiece of the day.